Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy as a Ward Against the Effects of Poor Sleep on Behaviors

Abstract Entrepreneurial behavior requires energy, and so entrepreneurs need to sleep. However, combining a scarcity perspective of energy with an abundance perspective of energy, we show that entrepreneurs high in entrepreneurial self-efficacy are less dependent on good sleep than are entrepreneurs low in self-efficacy. Conducting an experience sampling study of 93 entrepreneurs over one workweek, we studied how sleep quality and entrepreneurial self-efficacy affect entrepreneurs’ day-to-day energy and their subsequent entrepreneurial behavior. The results showed that sleep quality has a positive indirect effect on daily creativity and daily monitoring (but not daily scanning/search) through morning vigor and that this relationship is contingent on entrepreneurial self-efficacy, with sleep quality unrelated to morning vigor and subsequent behavior for entrepreneurs high in self-efficacy